Happy first Friday in August, dear readers! I always love that Friday feeling, but this week I'm feeling extra amped. I'm staying in town and am thrilled about it. Tomorrow, I'm doing a Core Power Yoga class, going to True Food then hitting the pool. Wahoo!

To kick off the weekend, I have another round of Five Facts from a Guy! Today we're checking in with Peter, who recently proposed to my dear friend, Jordan. I first met Peter when he and Jor came to Atlanta in 2014. I know I have no proof of this, but, even then I knew he was the guy for her. I was so happy when they got engaged in July! Today he's posting about when to know you've got a good thing going.

1. Be willing to try new things. I guess it’s expected that by our mid-twenties we’re supposed to know exactly what we like and don’t like, but I’m not totally sold on that idea. I can tell you unequivocally that I’m not really into mayonnaise, and as embarrassing as it is, traditional sun tan lotion kind of weirds me out because of multiple similarities between the two. However, I’m slowly warming up to spray on sunscreen, due to my fiance’s general distaste for skin cancer. A true win win. In the same vain, she’s totally willing to try a “no thank you bite” of whatever exotic seafood dish I’ve ordered for dinner – even though she hates pretty much everything that lives in of the ocean that isn’t a mermaid. Anyway, my point is to not be afraid of change and through compromise you sometimes have way more fun than you’ve ever expected.

2. Be authentic. Far too frequently people to try to manufacture a persona they’ve decided is “who they want to be” but isn’t who they actually are. It turns out false appearances are pretty tough to keep up and usually quite transparent. If you don’t like PF Changs because it reminds you of your ex-boyfriend, that’s something I should know. If my favorite food in the whole wide world is candy corn, I’m not going to be afraid to tell you. The people who live in catalogs aren’t real – and if they were, I bet they’d stink. And sometimes I can still disagree with the “real you.” For example, my fiancé pretends to like football games, but happily let me know she thinks the game should be shortened to eliminate the fourth quarter – because she gets bored. That’s just crazytalk. All in all, I think people with substance are cool. We’ve all got some kind of weirdo baggage. Share and embrace in it. It’s what makes you you.

3. Laugh. This one’s pretty simple. Do it. Laugh at each other, laugh with other people and never grow too old to laugh at yourself. Sometimes you accidentally go pee right after you’ve cut a bunch of jalapenos for your fiancé’s recipe (she was just my girlfriend then, but I bet she’s still behave the exact same way today) and before you know it, she’s rolling on the floor in laughter as you’re getting in touch with feelings you never knew existed in places that aren’t appropriate to talk about on the internet. In the end, that was funny for me too, but for FAR different reasons. Laughter can take different shapes. It could be the giggles you still share over the first time you accidentally kissed years before you even thought about dating or the uncontrollable fits you experience laughing along with trash TV shows like Hollywood Game Night. Either way, laugh. Life’s too short to be serious all the time.

4. Share your friends. The people someone surrounds them self with say a lot about who they are, who they’ve been and ultimately, who they’re going to be. You need to be comfortable with and embrace her friends, just as she should do the same with yours. Knowing that my “new girlfriend” could survive an afternoon (more than 6 hours alone) in the gauntlet with my mostly single and untamed fraternity brothers while accompanying me to our first wedding together was an immediate sign this relationship was going places I never imagined. Similarly, when I found myself texting her friends to get together for dinner while she was out of town for vacation, I realized it was game-over. One of the things I’m most looking forward to is seeing these two crazy worlds collide in just a few months. I’m not sure the world is ready for what’s to come.

5. Tell me when I’m being stupid. If you’re dating someone who tells you that you’re perfect all the time without exception – that person is a liar. We’ve all have bad days, accidentally drank too much on a Thursday or sometimes get frustrated and accidentally hurt a friend’s feelings. I think that’s part of life. At least it’s part of mine. It takes someone special to help you realize that you’ve goofed up and need to correct course, sometimes without even speaking those words. It just as important to have someone in your corner who’s not unafraid to tell you that you’re being an a punk as it is to have someone pat your back when you’ve succeeded.

Subscribe

A little note:

From time to time, I use affiliate links when I share a product. If you purchase a product after clicking an affiliate link, I receive a small percentage of the sale for the referral at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your continued support - it means so much to me!